Partners in the Vault
by daisydol
Summary: With his previous plan ruined by the squints, an old enemy sees an opportunity to exact revenge. When Booth and Brennan find themselves buried alive, can the team pull out a miracle without them? R&R please! M for smootchy lovin'.
1. Chapter 1

**This is just something that came to me when I was watching "Aliens in a Spaceship" from season two the other night. I'd love to see them re-introduce the gravedigger, they never caught him so I can hope!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in relation to the show Bones.**

_Premature Burial_

_To die is natural; but the living death_

_Of those who waken into consciousness,_

_Though for the moment only, ay, or less,_

_To find a coffin stifling their last breath,_

_Surpasses every horror underneath_

_The sun of Heaven, and should surely check_

_Haste in the living to remove the wreck_

_Of what was just before, the soul's fair sheath,_

_How many have been smothered in their shroud!_

_How many have sustained this awful woe!_

_Humanity would shudder could we know_

_How many have cried to God in anguish loud,_

_Accusing those whose haste a wrong had wrought_

_Beyond the worst that ever devil thought._

_-Percy Russell, 1906_

Booth couldn't tell if his eyes were open or closed. They felt open, but he couldn't see so much as his hand in front of his face. His head was throbbing and he wondered for a moment if he was blind. Had he been in an accident of some kind? Why did his head feel like it had been put in a vise grip? The only sound in the room was his ragged breathing, which wasn't helping him to pin down his location.

He reached out in front of him and felt nothing. Where was he? His stomach was starting to tie itself into knots of fear as he got to his feet, dizziness hitting him so hard that he almost fell back. The wall he'd been sitting against when he'd woken up had felt cool and metallic to the touch. He placed his hand on it and used it as a guide, walking until he felt it turn just a few steps in front of him. He proceeded forward slowly, running his hand along the new wall, until he felt his feet come into contact with something large on the floor.

Keeping his hand on the wall for balance, he crouched down so he could feel the object and his stomach dropped as he realized it was a person. He ran his hand over the body, feeling clothing and a small frame. It was definitely a female. A bulge in the person's pocket felt like keys and he reached inside to take them out, hoping that they would provide a clue. The key ring had a dozen keys on it and he wondered if she was a janitor or caretaker of some sort when he came across a keychain that felt like a tiny skull.

Recognition hit him full force as his heart began to slam in his chest. "Bones?" His voice sounded tight and afraid and the sound of it in the deafening silence of wherever they were only made his head hurt more.

Panic made its way through his system like cold shards of ice when she didn't answer him and he ran his hand quickly up her body until he found her neck, pressing his fingers to her jugular to get a pulse. The steady tattoo of her heartbeat under his fingers sent relief flooding through him so quickly that he dropped to a sitting position beside her. He was tempted for just a moment to lean down and place a kiss to her unseen lips, but he reined the urge in, instead trying to think about the last thing he could remember.

They'd been in Sweet's office for a session. Her father's trial had finished and he'd been found innocent. The only reason they'd been mandated to therapy by the FBI was due to his arrest of Max Keenan and Booth had been looking forward to less formal dealings with Sweets, but then the matter of his faked death had come up. Since it was Sweets who would decide whether or not they needed continued therapy sessions, the psychiatrist had decided further scrutiny of their feelings regarding his faked death were necessary.

Booth had wanted to strangle him when he'd refused to sign the paper stating that they'd completed their therapy, but Bones had simply shrugged. She'd said the same thing that she always said, that she didn't believe in psychotherapy and that it didn't make any difference to her whether or not she was required to do it.

The details of the night were fuzzy at best, but as he concentrated harder on them he could recall a moment when they'd been discussing their partnership. Booth remembered saying something about their amazing track record at catching the bad guys, he remembered feeling defensive. Had Sweets been implying that they dissolve the partnership again? He remembered feeling angry and then a memory, clear and true, emerged of Bones agreeing that a possible reassignment might be a good idea.

The hurt that he'd felt in that moment came back to punch him in the gut just as it had when she'd first said it. Booth pressed a hand to his aching head, the feeling of warm, sticky blood greeting his palm. He couldn't remember anymore and his head hurt from trying. Had they decided to sever their partnership? A feeling of frustration filled his heart at the idea that he and Bones might not continue working together. The idea that she'd be working with someone else made him sick.

A moan drifted through the deafening silence and Booth became aware that he'd left his fingers on her pulse, the feeling of her heartbeat keeping him calm.

"Bones?" He asked, hoping against hope that she would answer him, that she would let him know that she was going to be alright.

"Booth?" Her voice sounded confused, but to Booth, it was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. "What…where are we?"  
Booth shrugged, becoming aware a second after he'd done it that they were in utter darkness. "I don't know, a metal room of some kind. Can you see anything?"

She stirred beside him and he took his hand down from her neck to rest on her arm, not wanting to lose contact with her. He could tell that she was trying to get her bearings, just as he'd done.

"I can't see anything at all. Can you?"

Booth felt relieved to know that it wasn't just him. "No."

Slowly, he felt her get to her feet and he followed suit. He'd been distracted from his earlier exploration of their surroundings by finding her and now he was eager to find out where they were so they could get the hell back out.

Suddenly the room was cast in an odd light, causing Booth's overly dilated pupils to scream in protest at the contrast. Bones stood in the center of the room, her hand clutching a large flashlight.

"Where did you get that?" He held a hand up to shield his adjusting eyes as he looked in her direction.

She spun a slow circle in the center of the room as she tried to figure out where they were. "I always carry a flashlight in my purse Booth, you never know when we'll be called out to look at a body."

She completed her rotation and then shined the light on him. "God, Booth." Her voice sounded concerned as she quickly walked over to him, taking the back of his head in her free hand none too gently and bending it down toward her so she could shine the light on his forehead.

He winced in pain. "Hey, my skull is still part of a living head, okay?"

She looked at the gash for another moment before she lowered her hand to his cheek, lifting his head a bit and staring into his eyes.

He stared back, feeling his heart rate quicken a bit before he realized that she was only checking him for a concussion. He wanted to kick his own ass for feeling slightly disappointed.

"Your pupils are equal, your wound is superficial."

Booth felt vaguely annoyed. "Yeah, well it doesn't feel superficial."

She turned away from him, her mind trying to work out what had happened as she shone the light all over the room. The beam caught words high up on the wall directly in front of her and she stopped to read them.

_No freeman will ever be debarred the use of arms. – Thomas Jefferson_

"I think we're in some kind of stand alone gun vault." She lowered the light a bit and saw that the words were etched over the door. She walked over, trying the heavy metal latch with no success.

Booth looked around the tiny room, wondering how in the world they had ended up in a gun vault. "Do you remember anything after we left Sweet's office?"

She turned back to face him at his question, her eyes growing wide. He watched as she reached slowly up to feel the back of her neck, her eyes filling with tears at whatever she found there.

"Bones, what is it?" She had started reaching into her pockets frantically, then ran back to the center of the room, kneeling before her purse as she set the flashlight up on its end, making a tiny lamp to illuminate the room.

"No, no, no, no…" She was repeating it over and over like a mantra and it was starting to bring Booth to the brink of his calm.

"Bones, talk to me. What do you know?"

Finding something in her purse she stood and faced him. His eyes narrowed when he saw that she held a small tape recorder.

Their eyes met for a brief second and he could tell that the tape recorder wasn't hers. He closed the distance between them in a few steps, watching with feigned calm while she pressed play.

An electronic voice filled the room with terrifying familiarity.

"_Dr. Temperance Brennan and Agent Seeley Booth, you have been buried alive. I have calculated the air in this vault for both of you. A ransom of 10 million must be paid or you will run out of air in 24 hours. There will be no escape this time."_


	2. Chapter 2

_**24 hours left**_

Hodgins smiled up at the woman he loved, enjoying the incomparable view she presented from her perch over top of him. He'd known that she was the one early on in their relationship, known that he felt something for her that he'd never felt for another living soul in his entire life. He hadn't been indiscriminate, but he'd also sampled the offerings from a wide variety of the farer sex's members. Never had he loved someone so much as he loved Angela.

She lifted her arms up, grabbing the headboard so she could ride him at the speed she liked, which was fast and all consuming. He ran his hands up her toned stomach, loving the feel of her soft skin in his hands as he made it up to her breasts. They filled his hands perfectly, just as he filled her perfectly. Through his pleasure he couldn't keep the smile from his face.

"Jack, oh God Jack you feel so good." She pushed herself away from the headboard and leaned back until her hands rested behind her on his thighs. He tilted his head back with pleasure at the change in the angle, ignoring the ringing coming from his cell phone on the nightstand.

Feeling himself getting close to the brink, he reached up and pressed his fingers to the sensitive spot that her change in position had exposed to him, biting his lip to slow himself down when her moans reached his ears. He found the right rhythm, watching her writhe above him at the sensations he caused within her until he felt her clench around him. She cried out in ecstasy as he joined her, the hand that wasn't pleasuring her gripping the flesh on her backside as he rode out his own release.

She collapsed down onto his chest and he wrapped his arms around her, a chuckle escaping his lips. "We've got to stop spending our lunch hour this way, its torture getting back out of bed."

Angela lifted her head and placed a soft kiss to his lips, a satisfied smile bending her lips. "Not as much torture as having to keep my hands off of you at work."

He brushed her hair back from her face and shook his head in disbelief, his smile shining brightly up at her. Nope, there'd never been anyone for him quite like Angela. "How did I get so lucky?"

Pressing another quick kiss to his nose, Angela lifted herself up and started looking around for her shirt. "Can't answer that one for you big guy. Come on, we're going to be late if we don't get on the road in the next five minutes."

Hodgins sat up, grabbing his shirt in one hand and his cell phone in the other. "I'm glad my place isn't all that far from the Jeffersonian."

Angela pulled her jeans on and stood so she could button them back up. "I know. I can't help it, ever since Cam caught us on that security camera the forbidden aspect of doing it at work has made me almost insatiable."

He pulled his shirt over his head and laughed as he punched the code in for his voicemail. "Well, you'll never hear me complaining baby."

Angela picked up his jeans, tossing them to him as she slid her feat into her shoes. He dialed a number on his phone to get the message that had come through while they'd been making love. The expression on his face went from satisfied calm to confusion and he looked up at her while he tried to make sense of whatever he was listening to. Then his eyes grew round, his skin going deathly pale.

"Jack? What is it, what's wrong?"

He flew out of the bed and pulled on his jeans.

_**22 hours left**_

Hodgins swiped his card to get onto the lab platform, his expression mutinous. "I just got off the phone with my business manager."

Angela's eyebrows lowered in confusion at this information. "You have a business manager?"

"When you're the soul heir to the third largest privately owned corporation in this country and you'd rather spend your time knee deep in bugs, you hand your business over to someone."

His tone was tense and angry, which Angela knew was a sign that he was starting to break down. Cam walked closer to them from where she had been pacing over by the exam tables. "Well, what's the word? Can we get the ransom to the account the Gravedigger specified?"

The tortured look on Hodgins face was slowly becoming one of anger and he crossed his arms over his shoulders. "Apparently, the vast majority of my liquid assets are tied up in investments, stocks, bonds and tax free charitable organizations. It seems that, on paper, I'm a multimillionaire, but in reality, I'm a dude with a big house. I have plenty in my account, just not 10 million."

"What about the Cantilever Group?" Cam was trying to be proactive, but Angela could see that Hodgins' anger and frustration was close to bubbling to the surface.

"Oh, why didn't I think of the Cantilever Group? I totally forgot about them." Hodgins looked down at Cam like she was a peasant. "It seems as though, even for the boss, it takes a formal addendum to the bylaws to overrule my own policy on non payment for kidnappers without a proof of life. It would take 48 hours to get the red tape cleared and the money freed up for transfer. I've had them start working on it, but if we want Booth and Brennan back, we're going to have to find them ourselves."

The group stood looking at each other in silence. No one knew what to say and as the moments stretched out, the tension building between them felt like a scream. Unable to stand it, Hodgins pushed past them and turned to the railing at the edge of the lab that faced the entrance. " Where the hell is that guy, we called him over forty five minutes ago!"

Angela followed him, putting a calming hand on his back. "Sweetie, he has to find Booth's evidence file. He'll be here any second now."

Hodgins looked over his shoulder at the ticking clock that graced one of the computer monitors. This is what it had been like when he had woken up in Brennan's car a year ago. He remembered the pain and the fear that had gripped him when he'd opened his eyes, the hell that he'd endured for almost fourteen hours underground. Were Booth and Brennan in pain? He knew they were afraid. Knew from experience.

Fury tore through him like fire and he spun on Cam. "I knew we should have kept working this case, I knew he would do this again! We handed it off to the FBI in favor of more pressing cases, and look where that got us. Back underground."

Cam kept her eyes level on her bug guy's, her expression calm and authoritative. "We got a case that needed our attention the very next day Dr. Hodgins. I understand your frustration-"

His large blue eyes grew wide in disbelief. "You understand?" He advanced on Cam, ignoring the helpless look on Angela's face. He knew his outburst was scaring her, knew that she needed him to be calm, but he just couldn't stop his anger. He'd held it in since everything had happened the first time and now the floodgates were open.

Cam never wavered even as he came toe to toe with her. "How can you say you understand? You weren't buried alive, almost suffocated in a car in the middle of Virginia and then kept out of the loop about the case being handed off while you healed from a broken leg and jungle surgery at home. I took one week. One week, and in that time it was decided that finding the man responsible for doing this was not top priority."

Cam dropped her eyes and Hodgins knew he'd made his point. Walking back over to the railing, he rested his elbows on it and let his head drop.

The sound of the sliding glass doors opening caught his attention and he looked up to see Sweets finally walking through the doors. Hodgins pushed himself away from the railing and raced down the steps toward the young psychiatrist.

"Doctor Hodgins, here is the file you-." Without a word, Hodgins yanked the file out from under Sweets arm and ran back up the steps to the lab, abandoning Sweets at the bottom step. Angela took mercy on him and swiped her card to admit him.

Hodgins leafed through the file, the anger in his face only intensifying with every page he turned. "Nothing has been done. In over a year, nothing has been done?"

Slamming the file on an exam table he whirled on Sweets, his tone incredulous. "The FBI hasn't done a thing beyond our initial investigation? Really?"

Sweets held up his hands in supplication as he kept his voice calm and even. "I've only just been made aware of this case Doctor Hodgins. I'm barely up to speed myself."

Angela saw that his words were doing nothing to calm her fiancé and she knew the time had come for her to step in. All eyes turned to her as she walked over to him, placing herself directly in front of him so she could look him in the eye.

When he continued to stare menacingly over her shoulder at Sweets instead of turning his attention to her, something inside her snapped. "Jack, we all realize that you have a personal reason to be so angry right now, but you need to get a serious grip."

His eyes slashed over to hers in disbelief and she cocked an eyebrow. If he'd thought he was getting a soft and comforting speech out of her, he was sorely mistaken. She was afraid and worried and, currently, extremely annoyed. At him.

"We are going to have to work together to get them back and, in case you haven't noticed, we don't have Zach, Booth or Brennan. I doubt that the Gravedigger would make the same mistake twice in leaving she or Booth with anything useful wherever they are, so we're on our own here."

All of Hodgin's anger left him at her words and he found that a gut wrenching fear was left in its place. Angela placed her hand to his cheek, her tone softening as she saw his change in mood. "Sweetie, we need you. You were there, you know more about it than any of us. They're our friends, Brennan's my best friend. They need you." Her eyes filled with tears. "I need you."

Hodgins added guilt to the laundry list of emotions he was feeling all at once and enveloped her in his arms, taking as much comfort as he was giving. He looked over her shoulder at Sweets and then at Cam, his expression of apology getting a shake of Cam's head that told him that no apology would be needed.

Releasing Angela, he reached out and picked the file back up from the exam table he'd thrown it down on. "Well then, let's get to work."


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for all of the really nice reviews guys, I appreciate it so much! I'm really glad that you're all enjoying the story, looks like there were a bunch of us that liked the Gravedigger concept. Hope you keep enjoying it!**

_**17 hours left**_

Booth was walking circles around the metal room, inspecting every niche for some sign of weakness.

"We have the tape recorder, which takes two double A batteries, a flashlight, which takes four double A batteries, a pencil, a pen-"

Brennan was slowly emptying out her purse one item at a time and placing things in piles based on categories in her head. Booth wasn't listening to the inventory coming from the center of the room. He was beginning to feel like a caged animal as cold panic rose up in his chest, threatening to choke him. They'd listened to the message only moments ago, but it seemed like days had passed since then. How long had they been unconscious? How much time did they have left? His watch was gone and so was his cell phone. They could have barely any time left for all he knew.

"We have my wallet with numerous credit cards-"

Booth spun to look at her, his eyes wild. "What are we going to do with that, charge our way out of here? For that matter, what are we going to do with any of this stuff? We're buried alive in a gun vault Bones, we're not packing for summer vacation!"

Brennan looked up at him calmly. "I'm cataloguing our collective belongings to see if there is anything that can be used or combined to help us. Its what Hodgins and I did last time and it worked. I see no reason to deviate from a known method for handling this situation."

Booth stared at her for a moment, her calm helping him to fight his panic back down. Without another word he walked over to the center of the room and sat down across from her, the flashlight shining an odd, amber light up at the ceiling between them.

"We have a bottle of ibuprofen, two Power Bars, a small notepad…" She trailed of as her hand made contact with something foreign and she gazed down into her purse in disbelief. She lifted the item out and Booth stared in shock for a moment as he realized in the odd light of the room what she held.

"That's my gun." Reaching out he took it gently from her hand and looked at it like he'd never seen it before. "Why would he leave us with my weapon?"

Brennan shrugged one of her shoulders. "He's long gone by now Booth, I'm sure he didn't feel very threatened by you being armed in here with just me."

Their eyes locked as a horrible realization hit them at the same time. Booth popped the clip out of the gun, confirming their suspicions.

There was only one bullet.

Popping the clip back in he handed the gun back to Brennan in disgust, standing up to resume his pacing. "That sick bastard."

Brennan laid the gun gently down with the tape recorder. "He's banking on one of us killing the other to extend our own air supply."

Booth didn't look at her. "Yeah, well, he doesn't know us very well."

"He knows that we know the addition of a second person makes the air go twice as fast. One could easily extend the 24 hour air supply to as much as double depending on when the second person was eliminated."

He stopped at her words and looked down at her. "Yes, Bones, he knows that we know that, but he obviously doesn't understand what it means to be partners and that we're not likely to kill each other anytime soon."

She looked back down at their pile of useless belongings, frustration bubbling just under her surface. "Not for much longer."

"What?" She had mumbled it, but the room was deathly silent and it had come through loud and clear. He walked over to her and stood so she had to crane her neck to look up at him. "What did you say?"

"I said not for much longer, referring to our soon to be ex-partnership. We agreed that we both might benefit from a reassignment while we were in Sweets' office."

He crouched down so he could meet her at eye level. "I don't remember agreeing to any such thing." His eyes were hard as steel. He was only half lying, he remembered snippets of the conversation, but had no recollection of actually agreeing to end their anything.

"Well, you're suffering from a head wound, amnesia is a common side effect."

Her expression was so unflappable, he wanted to reach out and strangle her, but instead he got up and walked to the corner of the room. He had to put some distance between them.

Leaning against the wall he crossed his arms, leveling her with the look he used when he was questioning a suspect. "Why would I agree to losing my partner? We catch bad guys Bones, why would I want to fix what isn't broken?"

"I can't trust you Booth."

He couldn't keep the exasperation out of his voice. "You can't trust me? Me?"

"If the roles had been reversed, I would have contacted you personally to tell you that I was alright. You neglected to do that and I'm now left to question whether our partnership was ever as strong as I'd originally believed it to be."

Booth pushed himself from the wall so he could pace again, suddenly needing to burn the energy that anger was building within him. "You know Bones, I can't win here. I put you on a list of people to be contacted about my assignment, and suddenly I'm the bad guy for you not knowing. The real guy you should be mad at is Sweets, you know, the person who was actually responsible for leaving you in the dark."

He stopped pacing in front of her so he could meet her eyes. "Not to mention that the whole reason I was "dead" is because I took a bullet for you."

She flew to her feet at his words, her own anger crackling around her like electricity. She looked him dead in the eye. " For the last time, I didn't ask you to take a bullet for me Booth. I appreciate that you would go to any lengths to protect people in the line of duty, but that doesn't give you a free pass for everything else."

His eyes were like daggers as he took an angry step toward her. "You know what Bones, I didn't just throw myself in front of a bullet because it was my duty."

"Well, why did you then?"

"Because…I…" He bit the words back, feeling low and cowardly that he couldn't say them even now, when they were god knows where buried under god knows what.

_Because I love you. I'm so in love with you I can barely breathe._

"I'm listening."

He ran an angry hand through his hair and walked back to the other side of the room again. "Because you're my partner and that's something that goes way beyond simple duty. You protect your partner as you would protect yourself." He crossed his arms over his chest again. "You aren't working with someone else, okay, you just aren't."

"I'm not your lap dog Booth, I don't just come when you call and do what you say. I'm a world-renowned forensic anthropologist you know, I had a career that was doing just fine before you came into the picture. I'm tired of you trying to call all of the shots, and when things really mattered, you disappeared."

Booth threw up his hands in aggravation. "I did not disappear Bones, I was on an assignment."

She tightened her hands into fists at her sides, her voice coming out in a yell. "You died on me Booth! For a week you were dead, and I was left broken and alone and I can't trust that you'll never do that to me again!"

The moment that she'd yelled the words she wished she could take them back, but they hung around them in the room like heavy smoke. The look in his eyes made her heart pound and she turned away from him, walking to the opposite corner of the room from the one he was currently occupying.

"Bones-"

"Just, please, stop." She bit the words out, cutting him off before he could say anything that might make her lose her composure more than she already had. They were going to get through this and she didn't want them saying anything that would complicate things even further once they were free. She'd already had to fight with the decision to break their partnership, but his death had hurt her so badly she knew that she couldn't stay behind that line that partner's don't cross any longer. If she had to work with him even one more day, her heart was going to shatter.

He looked big and strong across the tiny room from her, his face cast in shadows that did nothing to dampen his handsomeness. If they didn't make it out of here, if the team didn't pay the ransom or couldn't find them in time, she didn't want her last moments to be spent in humiliation after admitting to feelings that she had for him, feelings that he obviously didn't share if he couldn't even find her important enough to tell her he had been alive.

She slid to a seated position in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest. From his vantage point, he thought she looked like a frightened little girl and he had to fight the urge to take her into his arms and tell her that it was going to be alright.

"We just have to wait it out Booth. They will find us and everything will be fine. This will all be over soon. It's probably best that we don't keep talking, we're wasting air."

Booth lowered himself carefully to a seated position as well, one leg straight out in front of him and the other bent. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, so much unsaid and hanging between them.

And then the flashlight flickered and went out.


	4. Chapter 4

**You guys are completely awesome with the feedback. Thank you! Onto the next…**

_**14 hours left**_

"Look, I told you people everything I knew about this last year. I failed the Kent family and I left the Bureau. I can't help you any further, why don't you call Agent Kurland or the kidnapping and ransom guy Thomas Vega? They would know a hell of a lot more about this than me." Former FBI agent Pete Sanders stood up from his seat in the loft of the Jeffersonian and looked over the railing at the bustling forensics lab below.

He looked like hell, and Sweets knew from the little information he'd been given about the him that, aside from leaving the Bureau after the two Kent boys died at the Gravedigger's hands, he'd also become a drunk. He looked like he hadn't shaved in days, his clothes were wrinkled and sour smelling and his nose was cut. Sweets had seen people come off of days long drinking binges before. It was seldom pretty.

Sweets stood too, feeling desperate to get any insight at all from the man who'd dealt with the Gravedigger last. "I understand that this is difficult to revisit again Mr. Sanders but the case was handed over to Agent Booth last year. Agent Kurland is on another assignment in California and Thomas Vega is on a book tour overseas. You're the only hope I have right now to get even the smallest bit of insight about this guy, seeing as how the current agent assigned to the case has been buried alive."

Sanders turned around to look at Sweets. "I'm sorry about Agent Booth, he seemed like a nice guy, which is exactly why I couldn't hack this line of work anymore. Typically, a general contractor's day doesn't involve letting someone die or being killed yourself. Good luck with your investigation, I just can't help you."

Sweets watched with dismay as the damaged man turned to leave. Cam approached the top of the steps just as Sanders began to descend them. The two exchanged glances as they passed each other, then Cam pointed a questioning look at Sweets.

Sitting back down, he gestured in the direction the former agent had retreated in. "He's too traumatized to help us, I couldn't get anything meaningful for my psych profile."

Cam took the empty seat next to the doctor and placed some papers in front of him. "Well, I got the location of the kidnapping. Took place in the FBI basement garage." She placed a black and white surveillance photo in front of Sweets. "Here's a picture of Booth's car minutes before the surveillance camera went offline."

Sweets looked up at her with surprise. "Just that camera?"

Cam nodded her head. "By the time security got down to check it out half an hour later, they found the camera wire cut and evidence of foul play, indicating that the kidnapping took place sometime within that time frame."

"It took them half an hour to go and investigate? Boy, I sure feel secure working in a federal building now."

Cam nodded again. "Booth and Brennan had plenty of time to leave for the night, get down to this area of the parking garage and be caught by surprise before anyone was the wiser. I'm on my way to take the particulate and blood evidence from the crime scene down to Hodgins and the security tapes from the rest of the garage are on their way to Angela as we speak."

Sweets looked at her with concern. "Blood? They found blood?"

Cam pushed herself to her feet, gathering up the new evidence she had accumulated. "Most likely Booth's, fits the M.O."

Sweets swallowed hard, the worry in his face making him look ten years past his tender age of twenty-three. As Cam walked toward the stairs, he called her name, getting up from his seat to meet her before she left.

"We should be looking for a male, between thirty and fifty years of age. He's someone who works for a living, probably in a skilled job that requires experience as opposed to a degree of some kind. He doesn't have many friends, he spends his time plotting out his next kidnapping and getting everything into place well before the event actually happens. He feels that he's owed the money he gets from the victim's families. His sense of entitlement probably stems from feeling disconnected at some point from society, especially members of society that he has been made to feel inferior to."

"Like rich people?" Cam asked.

Sweets nodded. "Like rich people, or anyone else that he sees as having an inflated sense of superiority. I'm sorry I can't get more detailed. If I had more time…."

Cam patted him on the arm and gave him a reassuring smile. "You've done a good job. Every little bit can help."

_**12 hours left**_

Angela stared at the monitor in her office as Hodgins walked in to check on her. "I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for. There are twenty-four hours worth of videos here for each camera and they sent me ten cameras worth of footage. We have no make or model of the car and no idea when he even arrived in the building."

She looked up at him with worry and frustration etched into her features. "What have you got?"

Hodgins sat down next to her and watched as grainy cars inched across the screen at random intervals. "A whole lot of things that don't belong together. I found traces of the same aluminum powder residue in the samples from the crime scene as the traces we found last year in the beer vat."

Angela stopped the tape and turned in her chair to face her fiancé. "Okay, so we know it's definitely the same guy in the same car as last year, but why would there be traces of aluminum on the ground? Didn't we decide that those traces came from a customized aluminum case in the guy's trunk?"

Hodgins nodded. "Something from his trunk must have hit the ground during the kidnapping. There are also traces of a blue, metallic based paint in the ground samples and in the blood samples as well as organic and inorganic particulate matter of various origins. I'm trying to separate them all out now."

Angela cocked her eyebrow. "Blue paint? Like, paint from a car?"

Hodgins shook his head. "It's not the same type of paint used for automobiles, I'm trying to isolate different commercial uses for it, but I'm coming up empty. When the system finishes configuring the organic matter, I hope it'll be enough to give us something to go on. As it stands now, a couple of common-place metal samples and a paint sample might not do us much good."

Angela looked back up at the monitor and pushed play, watching the silent footage begin anew. "Was there anything in the particulate evidence that could point us in the direction of even the type of car we're looking for?"

Hodgins got up from his seat, the ticking time clock in his head growing louder with every second that his friends stayed buried. "It was an underground parking garage, there were several types of tire particulates, too many to narrow anything down. From the evidence we accumulated last year, the car hit me low so you can exclude any trucks or SUVs."

Angela nodded her head, disappointment making her feel like crawling into bed and going to sleep. She was tired and afraid and pretty sure that she wasn't doing anything to help whatsoever.

At a loss for something to say, Hodgins laid a reassuring hand on her back and kissed the top of her head before he turned and left the room to check on the particulate identification program he was running.

_**7 hours left**_

"How is it coming Hodgins? Anything?" Hodgins continued to stare into his microscope as Cam entered the room.

"I was able to isolate all of the particulate matter from the crime scene, including this microbe, though I have no clue what any of them has to do with each other."

She walked up behind him and he moved his head away from the lenses so she could look inside. A small colony of hair-like creatures sat on display under her watchful eye. "What is it?"

Hodgins regained his place at the scope as Cam moved away. "Sphaerotilus natans IF4. It's a microbe most commonly found in wastewater treatment facilities and sewage."

Cam narrowed her eyes. "Not sure what either of those locations could have to do with a kidnapper who likes to put his victims in the ground. What did the rest of the particulates tell us?"

Without taking his eyes from the lenses he picked up a piece of paper that had been sitting next to him, handing it out to Cam.

She took it from him, her eyebrows lowering even further as she perused the list. "Apple rind, coffee grounds, paper pulp, tobacco, carpet fiber, diapers…" She looked up from the list in disbelief. "There are 127 items on this list."

He looked away from the microscope, fatigue and frustration all over his face. "127 items and not one of them have anything to do with the other." He held out a second piece of paper for Cam to look at, this one containing a picture of a commercial looking tool.

Cam could see no end to her confusion in sight. "And the plot thickens."

Hodgins stood up to look over her shoulder. "It's a Taylor T Heavy Duty Riveter, used to put rivets in on various metals during heavy duty construction projects. The blue, metallic paint particles I found in the ground swabs and in the blood are proprietary to this company and this tool specifically. "

Cam put the sheet of paper back down. "So, you think this is most likely the weapon used to incapacitate Booth?"

Hodgins cocked an eyebrow. "Have you positively ID'd the blood at the scene as his?"

Cam nodded. "DNA would take days, but the blood type is his and not Brennan's."

They both went quiet for a moment as worry gripped them anew. It was one thing to theorize that someone they knew had been gravely injured. It was another thing entirely to know it for a fact.

Hodgins was the first to break the silence, wanting to reassure them both the only way he knew how, with the facts. "The presence of the blue paint in the blood would indicate that Booth was hit with the handle of the tool and not the end that punches rivets. It isn't a very large tool, indicating that the Gravedigger only meant to knock Booth out long enough to kidnap he and Doctor Brennan. That and the very small amount of blood found would indicate that his wound isn't serious."

Cam gave him a small smile, patting him on his arm. "Thanks Hodgins."

He smiled back at her, glad to help both of them feel even the smallest amount of hope, when a scream of triumph and the sound of running feet had both of them jerking their heads toward the doorway to his office. Angela burst into view, her glowing expression telling them that she knew something huge.

"I know who has them! I know who the Gravedigger is!"


	5. Chapter 5

_**6 hours left**_

Booth sat in the darkness, the metal of the wall against his back cooling him. The air in the room was getting thick and humid, making it hard to get a clean breath into his lungs. He'd taken his shirt off so all he wore was a white, tank undershirt and his jeans, but he could still feel a thin sheen of perspiration on his skin.

Everything the Gravedigger had left with them still sat in an unseen pile in the center of the room. There was nothing there that would be of any use, nothing that would help them help themselves.

He'd nodded off here and there, trying to occupy his mind in the total darkness during the wakeful times. He worried his poker chip in his hands absently as his mind wandered, all sense of time lost on him. He'd given up fantasizing hours ago about how he could have done things differently, how he could have saved them. He would do anything to protect her and somehow, they were still at the hands of a madman. Now all he wanted to think about was the woman sitting across the room from him and the rhythmic sounds of her breath in the silence of their tomb.

She cared about him. He'd seen it in her eyes, heard it in her words when she'd told him his death had left her broken and alone. He'd wanted to go to her, tell her how he felt the moment that she'd said it, but she'd shut down on him and he'd given her space.

He had to fight the urge to laugh at his own stupidity. Here they were, in a metal gun vault buried under God knows where and he was giving her space? The odds that they had only hours left to live, if that, were very good and he was sitting in the corner by himself with his lucky charm instead of telling her how he felt about her.

Thinking about it was causing a well of frustration to fill up in his belly and he had to look at her, had to see her face again, or it was going to drive him insane. Slowly he got to his hands and knees and crawled in the blackness to the center of the room, stopping when he could feel their scattered belongings. He fumbled around until he found the flashlight and the tape recorder. Taking the batteries out of each item, he began to mix and match the ones from the flashlight with the tape recorder's, hoping that it was only a couple of bad batteries in the flashlight and not all four.

On his third combination the flashlight clicked on, casting the room in warm amber light once more. He set the flashlight back on its end so it illuminated the whole room, then turned to look at the woman who haunted his every thought.

She had curled herself into a ball in the corner, her hand balled up into a light fist under her chin as she dozed. Her expression looked worried, even in sleep, and he felt a pang in his heart. She looked vulnerable and childlike and the morbid thought that this is what she would look like in death sprang unbidden to his mind, making him rip his eyes away from her back to the pile on the floor. He felt sick. She'd once told a victim's family that suffocation was like going to sleep. Had she been telling the truth?

Something caught his eye amidst all of their scattered things and a horrible thought sprang to his head. What if there was still something he could do for her, to protect her from the death that lay in wait for them both?

Reaching slowly out, he picked up his gun.

It felt cold and heavy in his hand as he looked down at it. Ever since becoming a man he had know the feel of a gun in his hand, known the feeling of snuffing out a life in the name of duty and honor and nobility. He'd killed because he'd had to, because he knew in his heart that the act of taking a life was a necessary evil sometimes in order to save a life.

He pulled the slide back, forcing the single round into the chamber.

Brennan opened her eyes at the sound, momentarily disoriented, and then saw what had awakened her. The sight of him looking so lost and so thoughtful all at once as he stared down into the FBI issue firearm in his hands paralyzed her. She watched as he turned the gun around in his hands, looking at it from all angles, before he aimed it straight up at him.

"Booth?"

She'd said it quietly, almost whispered it, but her voice startled him none-the-less and his eyes darted to her. "You're awake."

Slowly, so slowly, she lifted herself to a sitting position, her eyes never leaving the gun in his hands. "What are you doing?"

He looked away from her and back at the weapon he held in his lap, looked into the barrel that was now aimed perfectly up at the center of his forehead. He knew that if he pulled the trigger now it would deliver instant death. "We're running out of air."

His voice sounded far away, sending chills up her spine. Carefully, she crawled to the center of the room until she sat directly in front of him. He didn't look at her.

"The others are going to find us. They did it before and they'll do it again."

He shook his head. "We found you because all of us contributed a piece of the puzzle. Your team is down a man and we can't help from where we are." He looked up at her, his eyes filled with a sadness that broke her heart. "Temperance, there isn't enough time."

He sounded calm and resolute. Her breath started coming in quick gasps as fear gripped her. "Booth, give me the gun."

He looked back down at it, sitting silently for several moments. Brennan's heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she was sure he could hear it.

"I can't sit by and watch you die." He met her eyes. "Not when there's something I can do about it."

She shook her head, tears burning her eyes. If there had ever been a moment to lay it out on the line, it was now. She knew there was no such thing as pride and self-preservation when the man she loved had a gun pointed at his head.

She reached out her hand, a single tear running slowly down her cheek. "You say you can't watch me die? Well, watching you die will kill me. I don't want to survive in a world that you aren't in Seeley."

His eyes stared into hers and he let her take the gun carefully in her hand. She popped the slide back down and removed the clip, never looking away from the eyes that were telling her everything she had ever wanted to know, everything she had been afraid he didn't feel for her.

There were no barriers between them anymore and the love that shone in his eyes was so naked, so raw that she was suddenly humbled by its intensity and an understanding struck her in a way it never had before. "It isn't just about your job. You really would die for me."

He lifted his eyebrows, the corner of his mouth curling up into a soft smile. "You just got that?"

In a heartbeat she was up on her knees, grabbing for him, her tears streaming down her face. He came up on his knees to meet her, crushing her in his arms. She buried her face in his chest, grabbing his undershirt, holding onto him for dear life. "I love you Booth. I can't lose you again, I couldn't take it."

He squeezed his eyes shut at the feeling her words stirred in him. "God, you have no idea how long I've waited to hear you say that."

He dipped his head, brushing soft, sweet kisses to her lips. They were warm against his and he couldn't repress the shudder that coursed through his body. He lifted his arms from where they had encircled her, taking her face in his hands, and angled his head so he could deepen the kiss.

She opened her mouth, giving him entrance to its sweetness and moaned low in her throat as his tongue slid sensuously against hers. Her eyes fell closed at the sensation. She'd kissed him under the mistletoe at Christmas time, but this kiss was real and it felt like the first one she'd ever had.

"I'm so in love with you Temperance. I don't care what happens, I can die knowing that you know." His voice was a soft whisper against her lips, making gooseflesh pop up on her arms. "Nothing else matters anymore."

She pulled back from him just enough to look into his eyes and he felt her take the bottom of his shirt in her hands. He let her pull it over his head, let her run her hands up and down his bare chest. She lowered her head to his nipple and his eyes rolled back.

The feeling of her hands on him was indescribable. He'd imagined her touching him so many times that he was sure the real thing wouldn't be able to live up to what he'd already seen in his mind. He had been so wrong.

Running his hands lazily down her back as she licked a wet trail back up his chest, along his neck and to his mouth he took her shirt in his hands and coaxed it up.

When it was off he gazed at what had been exposed, going hard as rock at the sight of her straining against her purple, cotton bra.

She reached behind her and undid the clasp, letting him pull the garment slowly down. His breathing was ragged and she could feel his heart beating wildly beneath her hands as she ran them over his chest again, closing her eyes with pleasure as his hands ran down from her shoulders and settled on her naked breasts.

"Booth…." His name was a whisper on her lips as she let her eyes fall closed, let wave after wave of sensation crash over her as his hands discovered her body. They were large and strong and rough, the hands of a man who had known hard work, a man who knew how to take care of a woman.

As if she needed someone to take care of her. Letting her hands fall to the waistband of his jeans, she undid his belt buckle and the top button, slowly pulling the zipper down as she leaned in to nuzzle his neck, pressing kisses to the curve where it met his shoulder.

He gathered her back into his arms while she pushed his pants and boxers down, taking the back of her head in his hand while he ran his other hand up and down her slender back. He pressed a kiss to her hair, drinking her in. "I've wanted you for so long Temperance. So long."

She pulled away, brushing a kiss to his lips, then going for the buttons on her own jeans. "Then I guess its time we both stopped wanting and took what was ours."

She pushed her jeans down along with her panties, revealing the slim sweep of her hips, the sexy line of her stomach and a soft thatch of curls that made him ache. He longed to bury himself inside her, consummate the love that he had for her in these last moments, to make himself complete.

He gathered her up, his erection pressing into her belly as he laid her back and pressed kisses all over her face. They kicked their pants off and then intertwined their legs, wanting to be as close as they possibly could be.

If these were the last hours they would have, they didn't want to rush them. They let their hands roam at will, pausing here and there when sounds of pleasure told them to dally in this place or that one. They kissed for what seemed like an eternity, mixing tender touches of lips with kisses that were deep and all consuming.

Booth had never shared himself this way with any woman before and it was almost frightening how intense it felt. He'd always considered himself a good lover, a generous and thoughtful lover, but tonight he was giving her his heart, making love to her with his very soul.

He lifted his head to look down at her, the beam of the flashlight directed at the ceiling gently lighting her face. Her eyes were half lidded with desire and love as they gazed into his, her lips swollen and full from his kisses. He lifted his hand to her face, gently brushing the hair away and smiled softly down at her. "I love you so much."

She mirrored his action, running her hand gently down his cheek. "Is this really happening? Are you really telling me this?"

His smile broadened a bit, perfect understanding of how she felt in his heart because he felt the same way. "I should have told you a long time ago."

She kissed him tenderly, her hand continuing to stroke his perfect face. "You're telling me now and now is all that matters. There is no past or future, all we have is this moment." She gave him a tender smile, melting his heart. "And in this moment, I love you as much as I did the day I met you."

They gazed into the depths of each other's eyes, everything they never said passing between them now. He wanted to spill the contents of his heart, tell her about every time he'd wanted to tell her he loved her but hadn't been able to get up the nerve. Instead, he used his body to tell her as he pushed past her threshold to make them one.

They didn't speak as he set a slow rhythm, loving the way he felt inside her. She wrapped her legs around his and wrapped her arms around him. He felt so good, so perfect, like his body had been made just for her.

She tipped her head back as his thrusts deepened and he kissed her chin, her jaw, her ear. His breathing was labored, tickling her earlobe as he took it playfully in his teeth, making her dig her nails into his back slightly at the sensation.

He pushed himself up on his hands, his pace never faltering, as he lowered his head to her breast and took a nipple in his teeth as he had the tender flesh of her ear. She groaned in pleasure, feeling the pressure building more quickly inside her with each passing moment.

"You like this?" His voice was gruff and low, filled with passion and need.

"Oh yes.." She answered, her breath coming out in a sob.

He continued his delicious ministrations to her breasts, going from one nipple to the other, taking turns licking torturous circles around them and nipping them with his teeth. She rocked her hips with him, not realizing that she was speeding him up in the heat of her desire.

He lifted his head as he slid his body down until it lay in contact with hers, biting back a groan at the feel of the soft skin of her breasts against his chest. He supported himself with his forearms, his hands threading through her hair so he could hold her head, as he took her mouth with the sweet, soulful way that he was taking her body.

She could feel herself coming to a climax, could feel the pressure inside her getting ready to erupt into perfect bliss and she knew she wanted him to join her in that place where there was no death or pain, just love.

"I'm close Seeley. I want you to come with me."

He'd been holding himself back for her, waiting for her to topple over the edge before he followed. He looked into her eyes, his face inches from hers, and watched as her breathing became more ragged. He felt her clench around him and he let go, spilling himself inside of her as her eyes fluttered closed and she cried out a wordless sound of pleasure.

He dropped his head to her shoulder as he bucked within her, the feeling of the small undulations she was making with her hips drawing his climax out to impossible lengths.

When they'd finished riding the wave together, he lifted his head back up and they stared at each other, their uneven breaths the only sound in the room. He could feel her heart slamming against his chest, feel every inch of her pressed up against him.

He knew they were running out of air, knew that they were most likely going to die here, but if he had to die he could think of no other place that would be better than in this woman's arms.

Now all that was left was to face it together.


	6. Chapter 6

**One chapter left after this one. For maximum effect, listen to "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush in the last few paragraphs. I can't tell you guys enough how glad I am that you like the story. Thanks for the reviews! **

_**5 hours left**_

Angela set everything up as the rest of the team waited and watched with baited breath. Her hands worked feverishly to pull all the information she needed up on the monitors to present to the group. Typing in one last set of commands, the security camera footage from the FBI parking garage jumped to the screen.

"I was watching the cars enter the building, hoping to see something that would speak to me seeing as how I didn't have even the faintest idea what I was looking for, when I saw this."

The group leaned in around her to see a highly pixilated picture of a bumper sticker on the front, right bumper of the car in question. The resolution of the picture was terrible due to being blown up so much from a low resolution security camera, but the word "Vaults" was visible at the bottom of the sticker along with the same border from the state flag for Virginia.

It was the chipped upper right hand corner of the sticker that got Hodgins attention, and his eyes went wide. "Is that…?"

Angela turned excitedly to face him. "Yes."

Cam looked at them both in confusion. "Okay guys, fill me in, we're on a bit of a time crunch here."

Angela typed a few words into her computer, bringing up a picture of the shard of bumper sticker she'd scanned in. It was the piece of sticker that had been buried in Hodgins leg when he'd been struck by the Gravedigger's car a year ago.

"I took the evidence we already had, the physical shard of bumper sticker from Hodgins' leg and interfaced it with the partial image I was able to get from the security camera."

She pressed a button and the two images melded perfectly, proving that the piece from Hodgins leg was in fact from that bumper sticker. The quality of the picture was still extremely degraded, however, and no one could make out what the rest of it said. Angela went on, her words coming out in a rush. "We had initially thought it was prepaid toll pass sticker, but it wasn't at all. Once I had the image, I cross referenced it with images that can be found on public websites using minimal points of comparison to get as many hits as possible given the condition of our sample image."

Angela hit a final set of keys and an image popped up before them in a split screen with the original blurred one. This image was the same size and shape as theirs, with the Virginia state flag flowered border and the words "Vaults" on the bottom, except this image was complete. It was a logo for a company called "Alleghany Custom Vaults."

Sweets looked at the image with excitement. "Alleghany Custom Vaults. Do we know what that is?"

Angela smiled, pulling the website for the company up on her computer. "It's a company that specializes in making custom gun vaults. You contract them to build these things to your specifications and, get this, they boast on their site that they're the only ones who make their walk-in vaults out of aluminum."

Hodgins stood up straight, the pieces falling neatly into place in his head. "That explains the aluminum dust being in his trunk as well as on the ground at the crime scene." He ran his hands over his face, a scenario coming to mind. "Okay, intuitive leap. He has some of his tools in his trunk, tools that are covered in the aluminum dust from these vaults. He hits Booth with the riveter, knocking him out cold and depositing the blue paint particles in the blood residue at the scene. Brennan sees it and hits the guy, knocking the tool out of his hand so it lands on the ground, which puts the aluminum residue and blue paint there. She fights the guy for a minute, but he subdues her, probably with his high watt stun gun, and he takes them off to be buried."

Cam crossed her arms over her chest and nodded her head. "I like it, we had a why and now we have a how. Now we need a who and a where."

Angela pointed to the site. " It says on the contact page that you can hire one of their five very capable general contractors to come out and do an in home estimate."

Sweets' eyebrows shot up. "General contractor?"

Angela smiled as she watched the light bulb go off in his head. "The list includes one Mr. Pete Sanders, formerly of the FBI."

Sweets pulled out his cell phone, frantically dialing until he reached the tactical team that was on alert, advising them to apprehend Pete Sanders.

Cam looked at the psychiatrist as he hung up his phone, then directed her attention back to Angela and Hodgins. "Good work Angela. Now we just need the where, we can't trust that Sanders will talk once he's arrested."

Angela pulled up the photo gallery from the site. "I don't know about you guys, but my guess would be that they're in one of these custom gun vaults." She pulled up an example photo from the website. It was the size of a medium to large walk in closet, made completely of heavy-duty aluminum.

Cam nodded again. "Okay, so if we are to assume they're in a vault, he would have had to bury them somewhere relatively secluded due to the size of the digging operation he would have to do." She turned to Hodgins. "Do any of the particulates pin it down for us in light of this new information?"

Hodgins leaned against Angela's desk, his eyes wide with trepidation. "You saw the list, it was a bunch of disparate items, nothing that could pin a single location down for us."

"Go through them with me again. They have to add up to somewhere."

Hodgins' frustration was beginning to grow. "With all due respect Doctor Saroyan, I don't see how they could. Albumin, Apple core, banana peel, pulp from a variety of types of paper, scraps of cotton, cigarette butts. The list was endless."

Sweets sniffed behind them, lost in thought. "Sounds like stuff you'd find in my garbage can."

Cam and Hodgins whipped their eyes to each other, their thoughts perfectly in synch. Without a word, Hodgins ran from the room, Cam fast at his heels, leaving Angela and Sweets to look at each other in bewilderment for a second before they followed suit.

"I've been looking in all the wrong places to find an origin for the sphaerotilus. I thought it had something to do with a waste water treatment facility or sewage somewhere, but there's another place it would flourish quite nicely."

Hodgins slammed the keys of his keyboard, his eyes darting to the monitor as pure joy came to his face. "I know where they are."

Everyone crowded around his computer, their faces alive with anticipation as they saw the website for the Kim-Stan Landfill in Alleghany County, Virginia.

Hodgins pulled up a page outlining the current status of the landfill. "Due to an excess of leachate drainage into the groundwater the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality had to close the landfill for environmental clean up that has yet to happen due to lack of funds." Everyone crowded around a picture of the abandoned landfill.

He looked down quietly at his keyboard and whispered something that only he could hear. "King of the lab."

Angela looked utterly confused. "I don't understand, how did we get to this specific spot from that microbe thingy?"

Hodgins gestured to a picture of a drain with yellow, viscous fluid coming out of it on the website. "Leachate is caused in landfills when rainwater runs through decomposing waste, contaminating it. The resulting sludge that runs off it is a perfect place for microbes like sphaerotilus to thrive. Take that this place is abandoned and add that we know this microbe is the reason why, you have a place where a psycho can dig until the cows come home baby."

Everyone erupted into action as they realized that they had done it. They had found their friends. Sweets was on the phone again, alerting the team to the location as the group grabbed keys and coats and ran out the door.

It was time to get their friends back, they just hoped they weren't too late.

_**Less than an hour left**_

Booth and Brennan lay on their sides, gazing into each other's eyes. They'd put their clothes back on, written notes to their families just as Bones and Hodgins had done a year ago.

They had readied themselves for death.

Booth reached out and took her hand, bringing it to his lips as tears misted his eyes. Brennan let hers fall at will, felt them drop hot and wet onto the arm that her head rested on. The oxygen in the room was so depleted that she lacked the energy to wipe them away even if she'd wanted to.

Booth closed his eyes for a moment. "I'm so tired."

Brennan's heart was broken. They weren't getting out this time. She knew that someday her luck was going to run out, but that didn't make the reality of it being today any less tragic.

"We won't have to worry for much longer. It's all going to be okay very soon."

He opened his eyes and she watched as a slow tear trickled from the corner. He managed a weak smile. "It's already okay Temperance."

Using the last of her strength, she dragged herself close to him so he could wrap her in his arms. His heart beat strong and true as she buried her face in his chest. She felt the rise and fall of his breathing, knowing that the body continued to try and draw breath even if the life sustaining elements in the air around them were gone.

He kissed the top of her head gently. "I'm going to close my eyes. Just for a little while."

She squeezed her eyes shut as grief ripped her up inside. If she did believe in a God, if she had thought that some divine entity was real, she would have to wonder why he'd chosen to give them this gift of love just to have it yanked away as soon as it was given.

She pressed her devastated lips to his chest. "You rest now."

They were silent for a moment as Brennan felt the lack of oxygen starting to pull her seductively under into that oblivion that waited warm and welcoming for them.

"I love you Temperance Brennan." His words were far away, so far away.

"I love you Seeley Booth."

And then there was silence as they lost consciousness.


	7. Chapter 7

**And we come to the end. Thank you guys again for the overwhelmingly supportive reviews! I hope you like the ending, thanks so much for reading!**

_**Less than an hour left**_

"Over here!"

Angela's head shot up from where she was in time to see people from all directions running toward a rescue worker about one hundred yards to her right. Roughly thirty people were scattered in biohazard suits, including the squints, across the landfill, using charged electroscopes to find the minimally reactive aluminum vault that they knew held Booth and Brennan.

She watched as a few tense minutes went by while the ground team dug by hand. They wanted to be sure that they had actually found the vault before they called the mini digger into action. Hodgins took her hand and they waited in silence, hearts pounding, until they saw it.

The team all held up their right hands in unison. They had hit the vault.

The mini digger sprang into action, making its way over and clearing the debris from in front of the vault. The group started quickly in the direction of the activity, their movements hindered by their own biohazard suits. Angela's heart was in her throat as she thought about how close they had cut things.

_Please let them be alive. Please God…_

The mini digger made quick work of the debris and detritus that covered the entrance, even though every moment that past felt like hours. Suddenly the door was clear and the team was cutting through to get to them.

They peeled the heavy door open and Angela watched as the first of the search and rescue members went in, her heart plummeting as she heard one of them call for help from within the vault.

"We need medic here now!"

She broke into a run, leaving the rest of the group behind as tears came to her eyes, making the ground in front of her swim and blur.

Ignoring the protests of the FBI team at the entrance, she burst into the vault, the sight that met her breaking her heart. Booth and Brennan lay in each other's arms in the center of the room while the first member of the rescue team knelt with his fingers to Brennan's throat.

They looked peaceful, like they'd lain down to take a nap. Only, their color was off and she could see no signs of life through her tears.

Her eyes flew to the man who was taking her pulse and he nodded his head while he switched his hand over to check Booth. "They're alive. Pulse is barely there, but its there."

Angela jumped aside as the medical team burst in and got to work, putting oxygen masks on the unconscious partners as they prepared to get them out and to a hospital.

Angela's knees gave way and she sank to a seat in the corner of the vault, her sobs going unnoticed even by her as activity buzzed around inside the tiny space.

They were alive.

**Safe**

Brennan opened her eyes and was surprised for a moment not to see the dim, metal walls of the gun vault looming over her. She had no idea where she was and, as she thought about it, no idea why she was alive. Maybe she wasn't, she thought as she stared at the white ceiling over her head. Maybe there really was an afterlife, and this was it. Booth would be so happy to gloat that he'd been right about the existence of heaven.

Booth.

Where was he? She tried to turn her head, tried to move her arms, but they felt like they were encased in cement and she couldn't seem to muster anything more than a useless grunt.

"Sweetie? You awake?"

Brennan turned her eyes in the direction of the voice and felt tears of relief come to them as she saw her best friend stand up from a chair beside her.

"Ange..." Her voice hurt and the sound of it was raw and raspy in the room, as if she hadn't spoken in months. Knowledge that an oxygen mask sat over her face came to her mind. The constant air that pumped through it was cool and clean and felt amazing as it filled her aching lungs.

"Shh, sweetie, don't try to talk. You're being treated for hypoxia and hypercapnia, at least that's what the doctor said." She smiled down at Brennan, her own eyes filling with tears despite her pleased smile. "He said you're going to be fine, you just need lots of oxygen."

Brennan nodded faintly, happy to feel that her muscles actually worked despite their exhaustion. The build up of carbon dioxide in the blood and the deficiency of oxygen in the tissue could be fatal. They must have been found just as they'd lost consciousness.

Brennan's eyes flew to Angela's as her tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. "Booth? Where's Booth?"

Angela's smile grew wider. "He's here, he's a few rooms down. He's fine Bren."

Brennan opened her hand weakly and Angela took it in hers, squeezing it as she let her tears fall. "You have got to stop getting into these situations Brennan, are you trying to kill _me_?"

Brennan chuckled, the action making her chest burn. She was alive and so was Booth. They had made it.

Angela sat back down in the chair beside her friend's bed, never letting go of her hand. "When we found you, you were in Booth's arms. I take it you used your time wisely to work out your differences?"

She'd said it in a mildly saucy way to lighten the mood, but the look that came into Brennan's eyes was so intense that Angela suddenly got a small taste of the magnitude of what must have happened in that vault.

"I love him Angela." Her already weakened voice shook as she said the words out loud, but she wouldn't hide her feelings anymore. "I love him."

Angela grinned, the expression in her watery eyes one that Brennan often saw her give people who were two steps behind. "Tell me something that I didn't know."

Her eyes felt heavy and she let them flutter closed for a moment before she forced them back open to look at Angela again. "You'll be here? When I wake up?"

Angela nodded, the lump in her throat making it impossible to speak. She watched as Brennan let her eyes close again, her chest rising and falling evenly as sleep took her almost instantly. Angela let go of her friend's hand, calm washing over her as she slumped back in her chair to watch her sleep. It had been a nerve wracking twenty-four hours that hadn't let up until the moment that she heard Brennan's voice. Now she could get down to the business of believing that she was going to be alright.

"Sir, you need to get back into bed. Sir!"

Angela turned her head just in time to see Hodgins pushing a wheelchair bound Booth and his oxygen tank through the door to Brennan's room.

Angela looked horrified. "Jack, put him back in bed right now."

Hodgins' eyebrows shot up, his expression one of pure innocence. "He threatened to shoot me Angela, what choice did I have?"

He wheeled the FBI agent over to Brennan's bedside as the nurse following them stood angrily in the doorway. "That patient has no business wandering the halls."

"I'm fine." Booth bit out gruffly from behind his mask, his eyes turning from the nurse to Brennan's sleeping face.

"Sir, while you are admitted as a patient in this hospital you are my responsibility."

Booth never took his eyes from Brennan's face, speaking softly. "Yeah? Well she's mine." The expression that came into his eyes as he looked down at her, lifting his hand to brush the hair out of her face, was so tender that Angela suddenly felt like she was watching a moment too intimate, too private for her eyes.

Slowly getting up, she made her way over to Hodgins and addressed the nurse. "They've just been through hell, can we give him a couple minutes? We'll put him back in just a sec, I promise."

The nurse regarded her for a moment, her annoyance evident. "He has two minutes, then his butt better be back in his bed."

Angela leveled her eyes on Hodgins as the nurse left the room in a huff. "He doesn't even have his gun on him Jack, you should have made him stay put."

Hodgins looked up at his fiancé, his eyes soft. "I've been where they were Angela. I know how it feels to think you'll never see the woman you love again."

Angela looked down at her feet at his words, feeling guilty for not realizing how personally this would most surely have affected him. He took her hand in his and she looked back up. "If it had been us, no one could have kept me in my bed when you were in the next room. I just made sure he got in here in one piece instead of collapsing into a pile on the floor like he was trying to do."

She placed a soft kiss to his lips, the image of him being pulled out of the dirt a year ago still etched into her memory. They looked into each other's eyes a moment, grateful that things had turned out like they had, grateful that they had each other, then looked over at Booth and Brennan.

Booth was clearly exhausted, the effects of the ordeal clearly taking the same toll on his body as it had Brennan's, but he forced himself to keep touching her.

His voice drifted quietly up to them in the stillness of the room. "We made it Temperance. We made it love."

Silently, Angela and Hodgins left the room to stand just outside, giving Booth some much deserved privacy. Hodgins gathered Angela into his arms and they stood holding each other in the hall, reveling in the feeling of calm that only having everyone safe could bring.

Sweets turned the corner and approached, glancing into the room at the scene unfolding, then directed his attention back to Angela and Hodgins. "They're really okay."

Angela nodded, not bothering to break her embrace with Hodgins. "They get Sanders?"

Sweets shook his head. "I'm sure I tipped him off that the ransom wouldn't be forthcoming when I involved him for my criminal profile of The Gravedigger. Either that or he has contacts still within the bureau that kept him informed of our progress. His home was empty and his car was found at the airport. The trail ends there."

The looks of anger and frustration that came to the squint's faces mirrored Sweets own feelings, but he kept himself in check. "We'll find him. In years, no one has been able to identify this guy and that's something. It's just a matter of time before he's in custody." He directed his eyes to Hodgins. "He won't be able to do this to anyone ever again."

Hodgins nodded his head, having to content himself with the triumphs they'd made today and hope that the doctor was right.

Sweets turned his attention back to the tender scene in the hospital room, a small smile coming to his face as he directed his words to the couple beside him. "I suppose an 'I-told-you-so' would be immature at this moment, right?"

Angela smiled. "Only if followed by a 'nah-nah-na-nah-nah'."

Sweets chuckled at her response and turned to leave.

Back inside the room, Brennan felt the soft brush of fingers on her forehead invade her consciousness and she opened her eyes, turning her heavy head to see Booth by her bedside. She smiled tiredly up at him, meeting the smile he was already directing down at her.

They said nothing as they looked at each other, sharing silent communion in the dim light of her hospital room. Nothing was ever going to be the same for them again, and in Booth's mind, that was just fine.


	8. Epilogue

**Okay, so I heard you loud and clear and decided to add an epilogue. I've never written an epilogue before and have no clue what should be added to tie up the story, so I just went with what I thought they would start out the next episode with if the story had been a real episode. I hope you like this, thanks everyone again for the amazing feedback. Hope this satisfies the need for a bit more closure out there. It's pure fluffiness, as I'm assuming an epilogue should be, right? **

**Three days later**

"How are you both coping?"

Booth and Brennan glanced at each other before turning back to face the psychiatrist before them. Booth even managed to crack a superficial smile. "Fine, feeling much better."

Doctor Brennan nodded in agreement. "Eager to get back to work."

Sweets smiled, seeing their artful dodging of his question's true intent as yet another example of their partnership working cohesively toward self-preservation.

"I was referring to the newly discovered romantic aspects of your relationship. How are you coping with those?"

Sweets looked at the pair sitting before him, letting the silence stretch out as long as it needed to before someone felt compelled to break it. Booth shifted uncomfortably in his chair as he always did when the discussion became personal regarding their relationship as opposed to work related. Dr. Brennan sat calmly in her seat, but it didn't escape Sweets' attention that she avoided his eyes.

"That's going fine." As Sweets predicted, Booth broke the uncomfortable silence first. The man hated awkward silences.

Sweets continued his line of questioning. "You were released from the hospital early yesterday. Have you both been staying alone?"

Booth shifted uncomfortably again. "I don't see what that has to do with anything."

Sweets held up a hand to ward off Agent Booth's increasing discomfort. "I merely ask because it is important that there be a firm support system in place following the end of a traumatic event such as this."

Booth glanced over at Bones, who still sat stoically in her chair, before he answered the question. "Well, we've, I've…I stayed with Bones last night."

The young doctor had to suppress a small smile as a tiny, almost microscopic reddening blossomed over Brennan's cheeks. For all of her ability to remain focused and seemingly objective despite the distractions around her, Doctor Temperance Brennan, Sweets was discovering, was not as good at hiding her feelings as he'd originally thought. Her giveaways were subtle, but as he continued to observe her he was beginning to learn them and it satisfied him to no end when he identified an emotion under her many carefully constructed walls.

"Doctor Brennan, you seemed to react to Agent Booth's answer. Would you care to elaborate on your feelings?"

Brennan's expression grew exasperated and she straightened slightly in her chair. "I did not react."

Sweets smiled. "Vasodilatation of the capillaries of the face would definitely, in my opinion, be considered a reaction."

Booth looked between Sweets and Bones, the later of which was looking increasingly uncomfortable. He leveled his eyes on Sweets. "Was that even English?"

Sweets couldn't contain a snicker. "Dude, she totally blushed."

Booth's mouth turned up at the corners in an amused smile. "Bones, were you blushing?"

"I was not blushing." Annoyance etched itself across all of the features of her face. She turned her attention to Booth and repeated her statement. "I was not blushing."

No sooner had the words come out of her mouth that her cheeks went pink and the smile on Booth's face brightened into a full blown grin. "You are too blushing Bones, you're blushing right now."

She put a hand to her cheek, feeling the heat emanating from it and then shrank back into her chair with an embarrassed scowl.

Booth couldn't take his eyes off of her, a small chuckle escaping his lips "That is so cute."

She wanted to disappear. "Stop it."

Sweets cleared his throat and the partner's turned their attention back to him. "This is good, this is a very telling interplay. Unfortunately, in light of recent events, I feel you may not like what I have to say."

Confusion knit their faces, the levity of the previous moment giving way to uneasiness at the serious expression that had taken over Sweets' features.

"You two are clearly in love, would you say that is a statement of fact?" He looked between the two of them before he turned his questioning glance to Booth. "Agent Booth?"

Booth glanced quickly at Bones before he looked back at the shrink and nodded evenly. "Yes."

Sweets looked expectantly at Doctor Brennan for her response. "I don't understand why you are asking a question that you already know the answer to." She looked at Booth. "Do you see why I hate psychology?"

Sweets folded his hands in his lap. "Because I wanted independent confirmation of the facts at hand."

When neither of them responded Sweets could see that he was just going to have to be blunt with them. "Agent Booth, Doctor Brennan, you have been through a very traumatic experience and have been able to find some very strong and powerful feelings for each other as a result. I feel it is in both of your best interests to continue on with therapy, but I also feel that it is in the Bureau's best interest that you be split up as a partnership in light of the change to your personal relationship."

Booth was on his feet in an instant. "You aren't splitting us up."

Sweets fought back the urge to run for the door as he looked into the angry face of the large man looming over him. Instead he calmly continued, after all, he'd known that this part wasn't going to be easy. "Agent Booth, I understand your desire to stay with Doctor Brennan. Until we can evaluate how your new relationship will effect your work, however, it is in everyone's best interest that you be reassigned."

Booth sank back into his chair and the group sat silently for a moment before Booth leaned toward Sweets to speak, his voice coming out soft and measured in the quiet of the room. "I can tell you that I've been able to work with this woman, to face what we face and do what we do every single day, despite the fact that I've been in love with her from the beginning."

Brennan couldn't take her eyes off of him, his words making her heart rate kick up in her chest.

"Agent Booth, are you saying that you recognized your feelings for Doctor Brennan before the events that occurred two days ago?"

Booth turned his head and looked back at Bones as he answered the question. "The first official case we worked as partners. You shot a guy in the leg for trying to destroy evidence. You were a loose cannon, you made everything harder than it had to be and I fell completely in love with you."

Brennan smiled, the memory of Booth's face when he'd walked in to find her standing over the killer with the gun in her hand as fresh as if it had happened yesterday.

Booth looked at Sweets. "I tried to carry on with my life as normal but I knew I couldn't deny it to myself anymore, even if I couldn't say it to her. I knew I loved this woman."

He looked back at Bones again. "Loved her with all my heart."

They looked into each other's eyes for a moment and Sweets had to remind himself why he was forcing this dialogue between them, had to make himself interrupt their gaze so he could complete his purpose.

"And you Doctor Brennan? Do you claim that you've had romantic feelings for Agent Booth that go back further than just a few days ago?"

Bones looked up at him and he was surprised to see a look of smugness in her eyes. "I anticipated that this would be an issue. That being said, I've brought proof that I can compartmentalize my feelings for Agent Booth while still performing my job duties with complete professionalism."

Reaching into her handbag she withdrew a piece of notebook paper, carefully unfolding it. Booth straightened in his chair and looked at the paper with interest, having no idea what it was.

In a clear and strong voice, she began to read.

"To whom it may concern:

My name is Doctor Temperance Brennan and I am a Forensic Anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington D.C. I was abducted along with my colleague, Doctor Jack Hodgins, today November 16th, 2006 by a person who refers to himself as The Gravedigger. If you are reading this, you have no doubt found our bodies and are trying to piece together the details of our deaths. Please contact the Forensics department at the Jeffersonian Institute and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, they will have more information than I will about what has happened to us down here."

Booth watched her read in stunned silence as he realized what he was hearing. They'd each written messages in the vault to their loved ones when it was becoming more and more apparent that a rescue was unlikely. Now she was reading the message she'd written a year ago when she'd been kidnapped with Hodgins. He scarcely dared to breathe as she went on.

"Whoever has found this, please impart the following messages.

Angela Montenegro, your friendship has been the most meaningful of my life, you showed me how to embrace life and live it without fear. I love you Angela, and thank you for being my family.

To my brother Russ Brennan, you did the best you could and you had my best interests at heart. I love you not only for who you are, but also for who you try to be every day. Polo.

Lastly, I would like to relay this message to Seeley Booth. I learned a little about myself and the world around me through your eyes every day. You see things and people in a way that I never learned to understand, but learned everyday to appreciate. In these last moments of my life, its your face I see, your voice I hear, and I'm left wishing I'd told you that you are the love of my life."

She looked up into his stunned eyes, her voice quiet and filled with emotion as she finished the letter. "No matter what happens, know that I've loved you from the day I met you and I loved you with all of my heart even to my last breath. Signed Doctor Temperance Brennan."

Booth stared at Bones, tears glistening in her eyes, as she handed the paper to him. He'd known that she had feelings for him, but since their kidnapping they'd mostly concentrated on the present, on the now. To hear those words and know that her love for him, like his for her, went back to the beginning filled his heart.

"Why didn't you show that to Agent Booth after he found you and Doctor Hodgins?"

She dashed an errant tear quickly away and regained her composure with almost alarming speed. "I didn't die."

Sweets cocked an eyebrow at her as Booth folded the letter back up and put it in the breast pocket of his suit, wanting it close to his heart.

Brennan looked intently into the shrink's eyes. ""That letter is dated 2006, more than a year and a half ago. That proves that I can love him and not let it interfere with our professional partnership. I have more than proven my ability to compartmentalize, I really see no reason why Booth and I should be reassigned when I can separate my personal and professional lives just fine."

Booth looked back at Bones with a smile before he turned back to Sweets. "That's right, total compartmentalization. No need for a reassignment."

Sweets looked at their earnest faces. "You are both convinced of this then?"

They looked at each other for a moment before they nodded in agreement at their shrink.

Sweets allowed the smile he'd been holding back to burst forth across his face. "And that's what I needed, for you to be convinced of it too."

Booth's eyebrows knit in confusion. "Excuse me?"

Sweets straightened in his chair. "It had been my theory for some time now that the two of you shared deep romantic feelings for each other. Those feelings were beginning to become a hindrance, not because they were there but because they were not out in the open. Now that they are, it is my professional opinion that you two are better able to perform your duties than you previously were due to the removal of all the uncertainty and tension between you. With you, the typical rule book doesn't necessarily apply and I feel you are a strong unit _because_ of your feelings, not despite them. All I needed was for the two of you to believe it too."

Understanding lit upon Bones' face. "So, you telling us that we were going to be reassigned was merely a ruse to get us to acknowledge that we can handle our current partnership despite our personal relationship."

Sweets nodded. "Exactly." A chirping sound suddenly filled the room and Sweets reached into his pocket to retrieve his cell phone. "Okay guys, great work today. I'll still need to see you for our session next week but I have an appointment across town now." He signed the paperwork that would reinstate Booth and Bones to active duty. "I'll hand this to the director on my way out. Take all the time you need guys."

With that, the young psychiatrist breezed out of the room, leaving Booth and Brennan alone to stare at each other.

Booth reached out and took her hand. "The day you met me, huh?"

Bones shot him a sideways glance, annoyed that he was so full of himself at her words.

Booth smirked and leaned in for a kiss that she returned. Her eyes danced with pleasure as he pulled away to look at her and he had to think, yet again, about how stupid they had been to wait so long when they had this waiting for them.

Their moment was interrupted by Booth's cell phone and he shot her an apologetic look as he pulled it from his coat pocket. "Booth."

He listened for a moment before he hung up and smiled over at his partner. "Nothing says I love you like a badly decomposed body in a storage unit across town."

Brennan's eyes widened slightly with interest as Booth rose from his chair and held a hand out to help her up from hers. "Come on, Bones. Let's go to work."


End file.
